NEET-UG Paper Leak: 14th Accused Sent to Judicial Custody

The scale of the exam this case is about: NEET-UG 2026 was conducted on May 3 and drew between 22 and 24 lakh medical aspirants nationwide and abroad, making it one of India's largest entrance examinations. The National Testing Agency cancelled the entire exam on May 12, after a whistleblower complaint on May 7 flagged a "guess paper" circulating on messaging platforms that closely matched the actual questions. The agency subsequently ordered a full nationwide re-conduct of the exam, carrying forward all existing registrations and centre preferences with no fresh fees or registration required — meaning every one of those roughly 23 lakh candidates had to sit the exam a second time because of the alleged leak this case is investigating.

Last month, the Court took cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the CBI against 13 accused in the case. The court also accepted the probe agency's plea to expand its investigation and collect evidence against additional suspects whose possible role has emerged in the CFSL report, a lawyer said.

The development in the specially designated Fast Track Court at the Rouse Avenue Courts Complex — constituted to exclusively deal with offences under the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, and connected cases — paved the way for the CBI to dig deeper into additional suspects' activities just before the now-cancelled May 3 exam.

What that law actually provides for: The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, which came into force in June 2024, was enacted specifically to target organised examination fraud — question-paper leaks, computer-system tampering, impersonation and fake exams — rather than ordinary individual cheating by candidates, who remain outside its scope and are instead handled under their exam authority's own rules. Under the Act, individuals found guilty of unfair means face 3 to 5 years' imprisonment and fines up to Rs 10 lakh, while cases involving organised crime carry 5 to 10 years' imprisonment and a minimum fine of Rs 1 crore; service providers involved can be fined up to Rs 1 crore and barred from conducting public exams for four years. All offences under the Act are cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable — explaining why the accused in this case are being held in custody rather than granted routine bail.

In its application, the CBI said that in the charge sheet, it had stated its investigation against some other suspects — apart from the 13 named in the original set of charges — was continuing. The probe agency said its probe against the 13 charge-sheeted accused was over, but the alleged role of others still needed to be checked.

On July 28, the CBI filed its charge sheet against all 13 arrested accused, alleging that confidential NEET-UG question papers were leaked before the May 3 examination through a network involving NTA subject experts, intermediaries, coaching operators and others. The chargesheet claimed three NTA subject experts entrusted with translating, back-translating and proofreading question papers managed to take confidential examination questions out of the NTA's Delhi office by exploiting security lapses. Accused P.V. Kulkarni allegedly wrote down all 135 Chemistry questions and their answer options on small slips of paper and concealed them while leaving the confidential section; the CBI said there was no practice of checking or frisking experts entering or exiting that section.

Accused Manisha Gurunath Mandhare allegedly used her familiarity with NCERT textbooks to reconstruct questions after returning to her hotel room, while Manisha Sanjay Havaldar allegedly noted down Physics questions in brief after returning to her accommodation. The CBI has also flagged shortcomings in CCTV surveillance at the NTA office, stating only 20-25 days of backup was available and that there was no dedicated live-feed monitoring control room for the confidential section.

The agency has cited 360 witnesses, 422 documents and 43 material objects in support of its case. The 13 accused were chargesheeted under Sections 315(5), 318(4), 61(2), 238 and 303(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, besides provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. The CBI had registered the case on May 12.